Hains Heads to Diving World Cup

Two weeks after they celebrated their biggest ever medal haul at a World Aquatics Championships, Australia’s divers are preparing for the 2024 World Cup season, beginning in Montreal which is the first of three World Cup events. 

With five months to go until the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, the World Cup season is important preparation for Aussie diving hopefuls, including NSW Institute of Sport (NSWIS) athlete Nikita Hains, who will compete in the women’s 10m platform.

Emily Meaney and Georgia Sheehan will make their first international appearance for 2024 with Meaney contesting the Women’s 10-Metre Platform and Sheehan the Women’s 3-Metre Springboard. Nikita Hains will join Meaney in the Women’s 10-Metre Platform. 

Maddison Keeney and Anabelle Smith will be out to repeat their silver medal winning performance at the recent World Championships in the Women’s 3-Metre Springboard Synchronised, and Keeney will also compete in the 3-Metre individual event.

In the men’s events, Shixin Li will compete in the Men’s 3-Metre Springboard while fellow South Australian Jaxon Bowshire will line up alongside Cassiel Rousseau in the Men’s 10-Metre Platform. 

Rousseau will also get another opportunity to compete with his diving partner Domonic Bedggood in the Men’s 10-Metre Platform. 

Bedggood is still riding the high that he and Keeney experienced after they became World Champions in the Mixed 3-Metre Springboard. 

“We have a long history of doing that event together and we’ve got some good memories, so to win a gold at potentially my last World Championships was a nice way to cap it off,” Bedggood said.  

Doha was an important event for Bedggood in more ways than one as he and Rousseau secured Australia a quota position in the Men’s 10-Metre Synchronised. The pair’s fighting spirit was on display right until the end of the competition as they earned the quota on their final dive. 

“I didn’t realise how close it was, I knew we were behind after the first two rounds but where our strength lies as a pair is we build and get stronger and stronger as the list goes on,” Bedggood said. “Going into the last round it was really difficult to get in the right headspace, you don’t want to think too much about the outcome. 

“Synchro especially is probably the hardest spot you can qualify for the diving at the Olympics because there’s only eight teams and one spot is allocated to the hosting team, so it’s really tough, you know that someone’s going to miss out. 

“It was a major sigh of relief when we got the scores and realised that we had secured the quota spot and while we still have trials to go, Paris is looking much clearer,” he said. 

With Bedggood living in Melbourne and Rousseau in Brisbane, the world cup season is essential to their Paris preparations. 

“To be able to compete against all the teams that we’re going to be competing against at the Olympics and get that extra time together is tremendously important as we don’t have the opportunity to be able to train with each other every day, like some of the other synchro pairings that we’re up against,” Bedggood said. 

“We’re good enough at our trade to be able to make it work when competition rolls around and the beauty of these competitions is we’re able to go out and compete together once a month from here on out,” he said.

The World Aquatics 2024 Diving World Cup Series begins in Montreal (CAN) from Thursday 29 February – Sunday 2 March. The second World Cup event will take place in Berlin (GER) from 21 – 24 March with the Super Final in Xi’an (CHN) from 19-21 April. 

World Aquatics 2024 Diving World Cup Series – Montreal

Women 

Maddison Keeney 3-Metre Springboard; 3-Metre Synchronised; Team 

Georgia Sheehan 3-Metre Springboard

Anabelle Smith 3-Metre Springboard Synchronised 

Nikita Hains 10-Metre Platform; Team 

Emily Meaney 10-Metre Platform

Men 

Shixin Li 3-Metre Springboard; Team 

Jaxon Bowshire 10-Metre Platform 

Cassiel Rousseau 10-Metre Platform; 10-Metre Synchronised 

Domonic Bedggood 10-Metre Synchronised

Coaches 

Adrian Hinchliffe 

Mathew Helm 

Andy Banks